Existing contact (lead) routing systems assign each contact to a representative who subsequently coordinates with the contact to arrange a follow-up appointment. Existing systems used to route contacts do not incorporate the appointment booking process, leaving those persons representing contacts waiting until an assigned representative has time to arrange a follow-up appointment.
Existing systems do not provide a convenient mechanism by which a contact can choose a convenient appointment time as part of the process of contacting an organization.
Existing systems do not take into account availability of representatives to which contacts are assigned during the routing process. Such systems may assign a contact to a representative who has no near-term availability, causing potential delays in the process of arranging a suitable appointment time between the contact and a representative. Existing systems do not provide a mechanism by which availability rules and free/busy information from each qualified representative's primary calendar are cross-referenced as a means to ensure that only representatives are offered who have available times meeting near-term availability rules associated with the routing context.
Existing systems do not provide a means to embed a customizable action button, link, Universal Resource Locator (URL), or image within the body of an email message or on a web page or on printed materials, with the button, link, URL, or image representing a specific routing context that embeds appointment scheduling.